by Ziggy Merritt
Whether representing herself as Wolkoff or Her Habits, synth songstress Joanie Wolkoff has never ceased in her quest of self-discovery and electronic exploration. Under Wolkoff she has released a number of recent summer singles including “Curve Appeal”, “Hand It To The Bandit”, and “Going Back” the latter a collaboration with Chicago-based duo, The Hood Internet. Recently I had the chance to send Joanie a few questions about the direction of Wolkoff and the upcoming Talismans EP. Having gone by a number of personas over the years I ventured to ask her the simple question of what’s in a name?
More precisely I ventured to ask what she plans to get out of the Wolkoff moniker as compared to any of her previous projects. “It makes a lot more sense strategically to throw down your anchor and stick with a handle,” she replies. “It’s like resolving not to change your address for the zillionth time, so everyone’s guaranteed to remember where the party’s at for the rest of all eternity. Besides, have you ever tried naming an enterprise over from scratch? An infestation of tiny ants is more fun.”
For the moment Wolkoff is happy being just that; Wolkoff. The surname is inherited in part from her grandfather who went by Wolkowicz before, under the pressure of stigma attached to his Polish-Jewish origin, adopted the current spelling. It shows a reverence for her own family’s history and a comforting familiarity as she ventures further into her chosen identity. Helping her along is producer, Icarus Moth.
“We were thrown together by chance in the music production program I flunked last winter,” she recalls. “At the time, he and his girlfriend Maddie were living in Jersey City and I was cranking out all these songs at breakneck speed so we started doing weekly music overnights where we’d all take the PATH train out to Journal Square after class and trudge through miles of glacial tundra until we got to their place, thawed and worked all night on what would become the forthcoming EP.”
That same EP includes the singles listed above minus “Going Back.” All have shared a unique method of production utilizing not only modern synth stylings but also, as in the case of “Hand It To The Bandit”, dulcimer-like, medieval tones. This blend has garnered praise from a variety of online publications including Noisey and Nylon, the former of which has already excitedly premiered a few of those recent singles. If anything such praise should be expected. The mutual interests of both Joanie and Icarus Moth have resulted in a truly simpatico collaboration. “It conveniently turns out that we all care about all the same people, art, snack food, B movies and vape aromas,” says Wolkoff. “I guess you could say the direct result of our collaboration has been a really healthy, relaxed creative partnership that makes self-expression that much freer.”
The same breed of self-expression naturally extends to her live performances orchestrated in part by live show director, Ken Peyser, featuring themes of “desire, freedom, worship, death, resurrection, all that good stuff.” The influences of hypnotist-painter, Nicholas Roerich are projected in Wolkoff’s performances alongside more visual projections of performance art by “Baby” Paul Barry and cinematography by Frank John Young. This slew of creative personnel crystallizes Wolkoff’s musical vision into an engaging sensory experience for herself and the audience, one recalled in vivid detail by a close friend. “My friend Liz told me the other day that at my last show while she watched me on all fours, gripping a mic and shielding my eyes against six feet and five inches of chiseled, half naked (sword-wielding) Ken, she cracked up thinking, anyone who knows this woman knows that she is a total goofball.”
Joanie’s on-stage persona, same as the one spent in the recording studio, or furiously writing away in transit from location to location has resulted in a performer boldly smashing away at the rigidity of genres to arrive at something experimental and best of all, fun. Expect the release of the Talismans EP this Friday, 8/28, and meanwhile check out “Hand It To The Bandit” and “Curve Appeal” on her Soundcloud.
